Candidate Back on Ballot in Chaotic Nigeria Vote

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: April 18, 2007

Electoral officials said Tuesday that a leading opposition candidate for president would appear on the ballot, even though the election was only days away.

The candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who is currently Nigeria's vice president, had been barred from running by the country's electoral body because a federal panel had indicted him on corruption charges. But in a unanimous decision on Monday, the Nigerian Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Abubakar had been illegally excluded, throwing an already chaotic and violent election into further confusion.

''The commission assures every Nigerian that the vice president will be on the ballot,'' Philip Umeadi, a spokesman for the Independent National Electoral Commission, told journalists in Abuja, the capital.

Mr. Umeadi did not say how Mr. Abubakar's name would be added to ballots, 61 million of which have already been printed. Nor did he say whether alternative ballots had been printed and distributed to the thousands of polling stations across 36 states for the presidential election on Saturday, or even whether the polls would go ahead as scheduled.

Mr. Abubakar told the BBC in an interview that he would fight to annul the election if his name did not appear on all ballots across the country.

''I will also be not surprised if they come up with another reason I am not going to be on the ballot because they do not respect the rule of law,'' he said.

The last-minute maneuvering came amid a turbulent election season in Nigeria, where voters are preparing to choose a new president in what they hope will be the first peaceful transfer from one elected government to another.

The governing People's Democratic Party swept state elections held Saturday, winning 26 governorships and state assemblies after widespread allegations of vote rigging, ballot stuffing and intimidation.

Human Rights Watch urged that elections in at least two states be canceled and redone because of serious shortcomings, adding to a growing chorus of local and international election observers and other organizations that have criticized the way the voting was handled.

In a statement based on observation of the voting by a researcher in the oil-rich Niger Delta, Human Rights Watch said the vote counts indicated widespread fraud, especially in Rivers State.

''Human Rights Watch observed the delivery of ballot boxes that were nearly empty to one collation center in Port Harcourt, but electoral officials later reported voter turnout in those same areas at more than 90 percent,'' the statement said.

Nigerian police officials said 21 people had died in election day violence, but local news reports said the toll was more than twice that.